There are a large number of impressive works in 'The works', De Novo's current group exhibition.
Most of the artists represented are known to regular visitors to the gallery, but these fine new pieces offer many welcome surprises.
Landscapes dominate, especially on the gallery's upper floor, where there are fine works by Graham Tait and Philip Beadle, along with works by Jill Perrot which make good use of moulded paint.
Mark McLeod has also well captured the broken ice forms of the Tasman Glacier in his painting.
Downstairs works are a little more diverse, ranging from the Rita Angus-like landscape of Iain Govan through the stylised nudes of Patterson Parkin and semi-abstract flower patterns of Rae West to the bold prints of the collaborative team of Mike Weston and Otis Frizzell.
These last items, though bearing a noted similarity to the work of Frizzell's well-known father Dick, have their own style and wry political humour.
The most eye-catching works on display, however, are the recycled metal sculptures of Chris Meder.
Meder's welded metal-junk animals have been imbued with rare life and character, exemplified by the charming, comical Doo Do dodo.
• Portraiture of attractive young women is one of the oldest and most clichéd subjects in art.
To imbue this subject with something new or different takes skill, yet this is what Luke Hollis has achieved in 'First Impressions', his exhibition at The Artist's Room.
Hollis' paintings subtly mix traditional stylings with clearly modern subjects to produce work that is effective and attractive, both from the point of view of the subject matter and from the point of view of the sheer use of paint.
The resulting images are reminiscent of late-19th-century formal sittings from the likes of Sargent and Whistler, but the character, expression, and essence of the obviously 21st-century subjects has been captured with precision.
The artist has perfected a rare but clever effect by deliberately using loose, painterly brushwork to create depth in his dark backgrounds while presenting face and skin in smooth detail.
The contrast between the two is not jarring, but instead makes the figures stand clear from vibrant surroundings, creating an illusion of motion and life.
The result is highly effective, producing works that breathe and shine.
• Two weeks ago, when reviewing the Dunedin Public Art Gallery's Colin McCahon exhibition in this column, I made passing mention of an accompanying display of pieces influenced by his work.
"Small Talk" is a collection of New Zealand text-based artworks whose creators have, to some extent, followed in the footsteps of McCahon.
While the influence is often tenuous, the textual nature of the works is a common thread grouping these pieces together as a subset of modern New Zealand art.
As might be expected, the artists use text in a variety of ways - from the obsessive totem signpost used as an aid to contemplation by John Reynolds, to Marie Shannon's self-referential use of text to pinpoint the absurdities of both the artist's life and modern culture.
In several cases, the aim is simply to invoke thought and create an insoluble mystery to be puzzled over by the viewer, as in the large multimedia work of "et al.".
Ironically, one of the most impressive of the pieces is the one making least use of text for text's sake.
Giovanni Intra's large array of monochrome works triggers memories of images from the Hubble Space Telescope, yet the title, Panadology, and the repeated use of the word "aspirin" within the art suggests other connotations such as chemical and neural reactions.
As with et al.'s art, it is left to the viewer to ponder the work's fundamental meaning.
